In today's environment, it is generally recognized to be desirable to recycle as many materials as possible. These include, for example, glass and plastic containers, metal containers such as aluminum and steel, and paper goods, for example, used newspaper and corrugated boxes and sheets. In recycling of corrugated boxes and sheets, it is well known to crush them, bale them, and send them to a hydropulper operation to pulp the corrugated so that it may then be put through the papermaking and corrugating process again. However, recycling by hydropulping is both energy intensive and relatively expensive. If the market for used or surplus corrugated material is not economically justified, there is little incentive for recycling the corrugated.
At the same time, it is known to construct various articles useful in the transportation and shipping industry out of wood. For example, it is well known to construct out of wood shipping pallets upon which goods are loaded for transportation. These shipping pallets include a number of wood slats which span and are secured by nails or staples to wood supports providing an offset of the slats from the floor whereby the tines of a forklift truck can be placed under the pallet for lifting of the pallet with the load thereon. Wood pallets are used widely throughout industry today. However, wood pallets present a significant disposal problem. They cannot be burned for environmental reasons and thus must be disposed of in landfills. However, wood pallets do not easily decompose in landfills and take a significant volumetric portion of the available landfill space. Therefore, they may be chopped up and destructed for disposal in landfills but still do not degrade. Thus, wood pallets widely in use today present a significant disposal problem.